Money home: why Ukrainian workers reduced the number of transfers in U...

Money home: why Ukrainian workers reduced the number of transfers in Ukraine

This year Ukrainian guest workers told relatives in Ukraine is much less costly than Last year, the statistics of the NBU. Experts say that now more widely used informal channels.

Bimonthly Les student receives from his mother, who for many years working in Italy, 400 euros for accommodation. "Before the devaluation of the hryvnia was more than a hundred, - says in an interview with DW young lvovyanka. - However, now that's enough." Money, she said, the mother passes through a company which is engaged in passenger transport in Ukraine. For their services the carrier takes five percent of the amount being transferred, she explains. "But mother knows these people for decades and trust them, and banks - not too. In which case, she will know from whom to ask, but the state did not prove," - says the girl.

The fact that Ukrainian workers pass home from abroad less and less money, confirms the official statistics of the National Bank of Ukraine. Thus, the first quarter of 2015 workers transferred to Ukraine 1.03 billion, 33 percent less than the same period last year. Moreover, the most notable transfers from Russia decreased - by 18 percent. From Germany, Italy and the United States - two per cent.

The old proven techniques

Overall migrant money to Ukraine received three ways: through interbank transfers, international payment systems and informal channels. According to the NBU, the largest decline in remittances observed with payment systems - almost 60 percent. For example, in the first quarter of last year, workers told this by more than 707 million dollars, and this year - just 422 million. Meanwhile informal channels in Ukraine received 148 million dollars, calculated at the NBU.

However, experts believe that through informal channels - through friends or companies-carriers - workers communicate in Ukraine significantly more money. "Past studies have shown that the numbers of informal transfers commensurate with formal ways, is referred to somewhere about 30 percent of total remittances" - said in a comment DW Alex Poznyak, head of the Migration Research Institute of Demography and Social Studies. M. Ptukha. The gap to official data, he explains that the NBU in their calculations for several years follows the numbers in the 16-17 per cent, as recommended at the time of the IMF. The expert argues that the current structure of the transfer of money has changed. Given the unstable economic situation, more and more workers are returning to the old, proven methods - "from hand to hand."Reasons for decline

So if the volume of informal transfers can only guess, formal channels still experiencing recession, as statistics prove. Experts see several reasons for this: much diminished workers in Russia - the so-called short-term migrants and passed earn money, thus bringing the banking system, says Alex Poznyak. Moreover, earnings also fell in Russia due to the devaluation of the ruble, he adds.

Another factor - a "total migration". "When a migrant worker who is already obzhyvsya in one of the European countries, carrying to his family, the need to transfer money disappears," - says Pozniak. And this trend is now widespread in Ukraine, says expert Institute of Demography and Social Research.

Administrative "mistakes"

Economists say that the decline was predictable. "As soon as Ukraine devalue the currency immediately reduced the volume of money transfers from abroad", - the expert of migration Analytical Center CEDOS, economist Oleksandr Slobodian. Clearly, migrants are trying to provide some level of family income in national currency, she explains. This expert of complains and the actions of the Ukrainian regulator: "The volume of transfers in dollars and fell through administrative measures, which failed national banking regulator to stabilize the currency situation in Ukraine. In particular, by limiting the amount of payments from the accounts of a day in foreign currency and prohibition cash withdrawal in foreign currency for electronic means of payment. "

Especially negatively, according to an expert, the situation has affected NBU decree dated 2 September 2014, according to which transfers from abroad must be converted into the hryvnia. Although the ordinance was in effect less than one month, said Slobodian, but it is "alarmed" workers, and since then the volume of transfers through payment systems plummeted.

And what about the state?

Because remittances are an important source of foreign currency in Ukraine, in the public interest not to create additional obstacles emphasizes Alexander Slobodian. She said the money workers now make up about 6 percent of GDP, and this is an important factor for stable monetary situation. Even if a "consumer" money anyway they are involved in the economy and going to the support and development of its individual sectors: food, construction and light industry, say experts interviewed by DW.

But the creation of a national program of effective involvement in the economy migrant money the state has not taken care of. With that in 2013 workers counted in Ukraine 8.5 billion, and in 2014 6.5 billion dollars.